Set “awesome” goals: the rest will follow

I’ve been influenced a lot by The Last Word on Power, a book on leadership by Tracy Goss. It’s quite difficult to get hold of now so I’ll give you the gist of it.

First, we’ve all got to where we are through using our “winning strategy”, defined as: a lifelong unconscious formula for achieving success.

“You did not design this winning strategy, it designed you. As a human being and as a leader, it is the source of your success and at the same time the source of your limitations. It defines your reality, your way of being and your way of thinking. This, in turn, focuses your attention and shapes your actions, thereby determining what’s possible and not possible for you …”

Once you accept that you can learn new skills and new ways of thinking, virtually everything becomes possible. It’s just a matter of finding out how

So, your winning strategy is the set of thinking patterns and actions that you’ve learned to use to get what you want. It’s how you set goals, how you respond to problems, how you engage with others, etc. You learned all of this without being consciously aware of any of it. It’s your “background programme” that gets you through life, running underneath your conscious mind.

Every winning strategy is limited in what it can achieve and the limitations of your winning strategy set the boundaries of what’s possible for you. Anything that can’t be delivered by your winning strategy is outside your “realm of the possible”. And your assessment of what’s possible and what isn’t is very often made unconsciously! You don’t even consider many options because they’re “impossible”. You just know they are before you even look at them – so you don’t look into them!

If you want your life to change, then you’re going to have to do some things that you haven’t done before. They’ll probably be outside your “realm of the possible”. But that doesn’t mean that you can never do them. It just means you need to expand your winning strategy to bring those things inside your range of what’s possible.

Once you accept that you can learn new skills and new ways of thinking, virtually everything becomes possible. It’s just a matter of finding out how.

But that’s not all! Another lesson from Tracy Goss’s book is the power of committing to “impossible goals”.

Many of us avoid committing to anything we don’t know how to do. How can you promise, even to yourself, to achieve something when you don’t already know, in detail, how you’ll do it? This is another aspect of the winning strategy getting in the way – it restricts you to only attempting those things that are similar to what you’ve done before. So is it surprising that nothing seems to change in your life?

But as soon as you commit yourself, you start to notice opportunities. It’s as though your unconscious mind stops looking for reasons to do nothing and starts looking for things that move you towards your goal.

For example, you could set yourself the goal of saving the equivalent of 5 per cent of your income by the end of the year. That seems fairly easy, just a matter of cutting back a little here and there. In fact it may seem so easy that you don’t actually do anything about it and so fail to save anything! But you’ll end up more likely with a modest nest egg and perhaps be able to afford a treat or two.

In contrast, it would probably never occur to you to set out to save the equivalent of 100 per cent of your income. The idea is absurd! Clearly impossible and not worth considering for a moment.

But what if you did decide that you wanted to do just that?

Well, now you’re going to have to do something different. You’ll start to look for money-making ideas as well as money saving. Do you need a better paying job? What part-time work is available? What skills have you got that someone will pay for? What possessions can you sell? Can you make things? Can you partner with someone who’s got money to start a business? Do freelance work from home? Start an online business? Buy and sell antiques? And the list goes on.

If you decide to go for it then you’ll begin noticing the opportunities that have always been there but weren’t relevant to you before. You’ll begin to make money.

Of course, success is never guaranteed. So what if you only manage to accumulate 70 per cent of your target? Is that a failure? If someone offered you 70 per cent of your annual income in cash now, would you dismiss it as inconsequential? Of course not. You may fall short, but it will be short of a high target. If you only set out to save the 5 per cent you might not even make that!

Now, your goal may have nothing to do with money, but the same principles apply. An “awesome” goal will move your life on. If you want it enough then you must commit to it. Accept that you don’t know how to achieve it, but still begin to act as if you mean it. Plan the actions you know about and identify the first step. Then take that first step.

News Bites

May to hold talks with Merkel in Berlin
Theresa May is due to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she seeks to make progress on negotiating Brexit. The PM will travel to Berlin for the meeting at the Chancellery. It comes a day ahead of a speech on Saturday in which she is expected to set out the “security partnership” she wants to maintain with the EU. The UK is under pressure to reveal more detail about the final relationship it wants with the EU. Mrs May and her ministers are setting out what has been dubbed “the road to Brexit” in a series of speeches. BBC news, February 16

UK aims to keep financial rules close to EU
The UK is ready to set out its vision for how it wants financial services to operate after Brexit and favours an ambitious “mutual recognition” of regulations to preserve the City of London’s access to the EU. Under Britain’s proposal, the UK and the EU would recognise each other’s regulatory and supervisory regimes and would have aligned rules at the point of Brexit, with a mechanism that would monitor any divergence. Three senior figures briefed on Brexit discussions in the cabinet said that the government will back the proposal, which is also favoured by Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor. Financial Times, February 16

Business leader warns May against harsh immigration policy
British companies are facing a recruitment crisis, with labour shortages hitting critical levels in some sectors, according to a business leader who has urged the government to produce details on a post-Brexit immigration system. Adam Marshall, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the lack of candidates for some jobs was biting hard, and he warned ministers against bringing forward a “draconian and damaging” visa or work permit system. Surveys by the BCC showed that nearly three-quarters of firms trying to recruit had been experiencing difficulties “at or near the highest levels since [BCC] records began over 25 years ago”, he said. The Guardian, February 16

Lecturers want ‘radical’ tuition fee review
University staff are calling for a “radical” overhaul of tuition fees and higher education funding in England in a review of student finance. Sally Hunt, leader of the University and College Union, says the review must be more than “tinkering at the edges”. The review, expected to be formally announced in the near future, follows a promise by the prime minister to examine the cost of university. Theresa May said the review would show “we have listened and we have learned”. Ms Hunt, whose members are threatening strike action next week in a pensions dispute, says there needs to be a “fundamental look at university funding”. BBC news, February 16

Shampoo ‘as bad a health risk as car fumes’
Shampoo, oven cleaner, deodorant and other household products are as significant a source of the most dangerous form of air pollution as cars, research has found. Scientists studying air pollution in Los Angeles found that up to half of particles known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) came from domestic products, which also include paint, pesticides, bleach and perfumes. These compounds degrade into particles known as PM2.5, which cause respiratory problems and are implicated in 29,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. Traffic had been assumed to be the biggest source of air pollution. The new findings, published in the journal Science, led to warnings that countries may struggle to hit pollution targets, with most tackling vehicle emissions. The Times, February 16

US rejects China bid for Chicago Stock Exchange
The US has rejected a proposed merger between the Chicago Stock Exchange and a Chinese-linked investor group. The decision comes after more than two years of reviews by officials. The tie-up was initially approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, pending further approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But US politicians, including President Trump, have said letting a Chinese firm invest in a US exchange was a bad idea. Under the proposal, the Chinese-led North America Casin Holdings group would have bought a minority share of the privately owned Chicago Stock Exchange. BBC news, February 16

Labour gets 16,000 emails in five days urging it to consult on Brexit
More than 16,000 people have emailed Labour over the past five days, urging the party to consult members on Brexit after MPs said the topic was being ignored by its most senior policy body. The emails from party members will be examined by the party’s national policy forum (NPF), which meets this weekend in Leeds, and whose members include the shadow cabinet and trade union leaders. Labour has set up eight policy commissions since last year’s general election, to consult members and develop policy, but none focus on Brexit. The party has said Brexit is covered under the international policy commission, involving Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, but that commission is not at the moment accepting submissions on Brexit. The Guardian, February 15